Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66753 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 334(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“I feel the same, little sis. You don’t even have to tell me that. I know. Talk to me.”
“I think I always kind of had a thing for Tyler. Maybe it’s why all the other men I tried to date didn’t work. I was too engaged with him. I mean, I have always gone to him to game plan things, and we just connect and talk things out, and he’s not the Tyler he is with everyone else when we’re doing that.”
“And you went to LA and it came to a head.”
“Yes. I slept with him. I spent days with him. It kind of started right before that, and I don’t even know how it finally erupted. If I’m honest, it was just always there between us.”
“And what happened when you came home?”
“It’s more what he confessed when we were there.”
“Which was what?” he asks.
“His father’s will is a problem.”
“How does that affect you?”
“You’d think it couldn’t, right? But his will was like a final stab at Tyler.”
Dash grimaces. “Of course. What did he do?”
“Tyler has to get engaged and make it showy for a certain window of time before he marries. Then and only then can he inherit his father’s shares. If he doesn’t do this, the company stock will sell off. This makes the employees and clients land in utter chaos and instability.” Dash opens his mouth and I hold up a hand. “It’s worse. If he doesn’t do it, the attorney will make a case that was handled by the firm that was fishy, at the very least. go public. Every case the firm’s attorneys handled will then be questioned.”
“Holy fuck. Holy fuck.”
“I know. It’s brutal.”
Dash narrows his eyes on me. “He asked you to be the woman.” It’s not a question.
“He did, which honestly, as a favor, I would have done it, but Tyler gave me this ridiculous contract that paid me off at the end and gave me my own division. It made me feel dirty. That’s what you walked in on when you brought me Molly. And he said it’s to protect me. I just…I don’t want to be his whore, Dash.”
He scrubs his jaw and pushes himself up to the couch, staring down at me. “I can’t believe I’m about to defend Tyler. First, Bella, he doesn’t even know how he looks at you. I’ve always believed he had feelings for you and you for him. You look at him the same.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It’s just there, Bella. The connection. And Tyler is much more likely to connect himself to someone who doesn’t have a role in his professional life. I know he had the Allison thing, but that wasn’t his thing, which is why it was so shocking. And to repeat that mistake, no way. Except this is you, Bella.”
“He wants to pay me to have sex with him, and I lose my reputation, Dash. People will think I slept my way to the top.”
“Will they? Look how successful you are, Bella. You didn’t make that shit up. Look what you did for me. Tyler knows this. You are the only one who doesn’t. And as for the contract, he also knows you have money and success and don’t need his. If he wanted you to go away, would he make you a bigger part of the company, Bella? He couldn’t. I know Tyler. No way.”
I don’t reply. I don’t know what to say. Okay, I do. “It feels dirty.”
“What does he say he wants from you, Bella?
“He said something about feelings. Too many feelings.”
“Tyler doesn’t do feelings, sis. Step back and think about this. I don’t want you to get hurt, but I don’t want you to walk away from this for the wrong reasons.” His lips press together. “Look, Mom is always on your mind. And she’s a great example of doing things right, but you judge yourself in her eyes when you don’t really know how she would feel.”
“She wouldn’t want me to sleep with my boss.”
“She’d want you to find the man that makes you feel like your dad did her.”
Dash’s words radiate through me and settle in my belly, where butterflies flutter about here and there. It’s hours later when I’m lying in bed, staring into the darkness with my emotions and thoughts a jumbled mess that I decide I’m scared. Scared of being hurt. Scared of looking unprofessional. Scared of seeing Tyler with another woman on his arm. My mother told me to never do anything scared. I’m not sure how that translates to me and Tyler, but I have to find out before I walk back into that office.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tyler
I sit on my balcony with the fireplace crackling with flames and a glass of whiskey in my hand.
The remainder of my DoorDash dinner is on the table in front of me, right next to my phone, and a copy of my father’s will, which I’ve read from front to back three times. At this point, I regret not taking my mother’s call before the Zoom meeting because I need to pick her brain on all things my father, and she won’t call me back. If anyone knows how to beat him, it’s her. And if anyone knows what to use against the firm managing his will and threatening me, it’s her. If I can get out of this will, I can win Bella back.